Hey past self! You ought to know some googling tips and keyboard shortcuts!

My response to the task: "What would you tell past self" from the Hashnode Technical Writing Bootcamp, Day 1.

There is one thing I wish I knew when I was just starting out as a software devloper, that would have helped my transition as a newbie software developer (still a codenewbie though 😊)and this would be knowing how to google better as well as some keyboard shortcuts (which is very useful for developers and non-developers.)

Yes! If I could tell my past self about some googling tips and keyboard shortcuts that I know now, my beginner days will have been much more easier. Before I give out these tips, I just want to let you know that as a software developer, googling better and having an array of keyboard shortcuts will make work easier and simpler for you.

So, here are the tips:

1. Use Google search symbols that can define your search and give better results like the "Asterisk" or Wild Card. Using this in your search term, google narrows it down to items that are mostly related to what you typed. Hyphen (-) helps you remove keywords from a search term.

2. Search with a specific domain (in your keyword). site:sitename - to search for a specific term and on a specific website as well. This is just an example: site:bbc.com:covid19 updates will return only results of that website.

3. Search with specific title or text. You can search for a specific title of text using google, you can refine your search to only return text or titles of a specific website helping to narrow down your results. For example, looking for a specific text in an article, web post or documentation, you can use intext:interperorable systems. Using this keyword, it narrows down your search to exactly what you need.

4. Use Good Keywords. Finding a search tailored to a specific domain or specific language, by adding such keywords to the beginning of the search keyword which will help you return exactly the result you need. For instance, "how to reverse a string" will bring millions of results in C++, JavaScript, Python etc but narrowing it down to "how to reverse a string in JavaScript" which means JavaScript how to reverse a string will bring only such results.

KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:

Shift + End - Selects from cursor error to end of line Next Error (F2) - Moves cursor to next error Previous Error (Shift + F2) - Moves cursor to previous error Go to Class - Ctrl + Shift + N Ctrl + End - Moves cursor to start of current document. Go To File (Ctrl + N)

And so much more!!! Having the knowledge of these googling tips and keyboard shortcuts will make you more productive herein become a better developer.